Tag: God’s nature

We Must Behave in Accordance With God’s Word

Watch or listen to the Richard Urban Show from April 30, 2020: What Has Happened to Our God-given Freedoms? https://www.visionroot.org/2020/05/01/nsa-surveils-all-americans-and-lies-about-it/

Collosians 4

10 Aristarchus is in jail with me. He sends greetings to you, and so does Mark, the cousin of Barnabas. You have already been told to welcome Mark, if he visits you. 11 Jesus, who is known as Justus, sends his greetings. These three men are the only Jewish followers who have worked with me for the kingdom of God. They have given me much comfort.

Jeremiah 35

18 Then the Lord told me to say to the Rechabite clan:

I am the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel. You have obeyed your ancestor Jonadab, 19 so I promise that your clan will be my servants and will never die out.

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Part 1
God and Creation

Chapter 1
God
God’s Goodness

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

God is the Father and Mother of all emotions—joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure. He is our Owner, who prepares a place of comfort for us when we are sad and protects us when we face difficulty. He is our absolute Parent, whose love surpasses that of anyone who ever lived. (203:228, June 26, 1990)

If God were a being of destruction, causing heaven and earth to decrease, people would want nothing to do with God. The eternal God should always provide what is needful and appropriate to human beings and all creatures. That is why He was needed in the past, is needed in the present, and will be needed in the future. Otherwise, our worship and our desire for relationship with God would be in vain and to no purpose. (22:317, May 11, 1969)

All religions of the world begin with the recognition that God, the Lord and Creator, is the First Cause of the universe. If this God exists, He must be good; He must be eternal and unchanging; and He must be unique and absolute. The God who created the universe must have, from the first, a purpose for creating. This purpose of creation must also be eternal, unchanging, unique, and absolute. God’s purpose of creation is joy. He created human beings and the universe to experience joy. Joy cannot be experienced alone. To experience joy, it is always necessary to have an object partner, or counterpart. It is only when a subject partner and object partner establish a common base and engage in give and take action that joy can be experienced. Giving and receiving love is to experience the supreme joy. In sum, God created us to become His object partners, that He might experience joy eternally by relating with us in love. This is His purpose of creation. (100:241, October 19, 1978)

Each of us desires to be good. There is not a single person in the world that does not desire goodness. We know that the direction of history has been toward goodness, as educators and people of faith have labored and fought to set standards of goodness. We are born seeking for goodness and live seeking for goodness—that is the purpose of our life. Since our lives are the warp and woof of history, it is the goal of history as well. (24:13, June 22, 1969)

How can we fallen human beings return to the God of goodness? First, we must grow to the point where our conscience resembles God’s original goodness. Next, we must behave in accordance with God’s word, thus manifesting God’s goodness and confirming the value of His word. When we do this, God will rejoice on seeing the ideal of the goodness for which He created all things. We humans have long pursued goodness, but finally we will experience the value of God’s goodness by substantially embodying goodness ourselves. (2:131, July 21, 1957)

How are we to live in God’s Kingdom? We are to live with the attitude to accept anyone who comes our way. Although occasionally a thief may enter and take something, you just close your eyes to it as he leaves through the gate, knowing that at least you have something that he could take. God thinks this way. Why? Because God feels, “Though he may be a petty thief, he is still living in My domain. Even if he takes something, he is only moving it about within the realm where I am the Owner of everything.” Do you think there are fences and locks in heaven? No, there are none. (224:327-28, December 29, 1991)

He Makes His Sun Rise on the Evil and the Good

Watch or listen to the Richard Urban Show from April 30, 2020: What Has Happened to Our God-given Freedoms? https://www.visionroot.org/2020/05/01/nsa-surveils-all-americans-and-lies-about-it/

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2124

As a boy of sixteen, I came into con-
tact with the will of Heaven through
prayer, and throughout my life after that
I have devoted all my spirit and energy
to accomplishing God’s will. I came to
understand that the fundamental cause
of human unhappiness is that the rela-
tionship with God was severed owing
to human beings falling into a state of
spiritual ignorance as a result of the
Fall of the ancestors of humankind.
Through this, people fell into ignorance
with regard to God, life, and the funda-
mental problems of the universe. I have
spoken publicly on more than ten thou-
sand occasions in many places around
the world and set forth a true view of
humanity, a true view of the world, and
a true view of history based on Godism.
These speeches have been translated into
twelve languages and published in three
hundred volumes. Their contents that
I teach are not the result of a compre-
hensive study of historical documents
or scholarly research, but are rather the
principles and fundamental answers I
arrived at through freely communicat-
ing with both the visible and invisible
worlds.

Richard: Here Rev. Sun Myung Moon talks about his life’s calling and work.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1368

The Unification Church holds joint
weddings to establish a world of love. It
does not acknowledge the existence of
race. Would you say true love is differ-
ent for white people and black people?
This is what makes our members differ-
ent from other people and our church
so great. At the 6000 Couples Blessing,
I married about seventy Japanese wom-
en to black men. I didn’t force them into
it; it was of their own accord. Would
you think such a thing possible? (140-259,
1986.2.12)

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Part 1
God and Creation

Chapter 1
God
God’s Goodness

Scriptures of every religion praise God’s goodness. Many describe the Absolute Being’s good attributes in personal terms: God is merciful, loving, beautiful, gracious, compassionate and faithful. Yet the standard of absolute goodness is beyond the ordinary. Universal, impartial and all-embracing, it touches all people whether they are good or bad. Common metaphors thus liken God’s goodness to the beneficial influences of the sun and rain that comes down everywhere. The abundance and fecundity of the creation is yet another testimony to God’s goodness. Wishing to dwell amidst goodness, the God of goodness promotes goodness both in nature and in the minds of human beings.

1. God’s Goodness to Human Beings

The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made.
Psalm 145.8-9

Allah is kind and loves whoever is kind; Allah is clean and loves whoever is clean; Allah is generous and loves whoever is generous.
Hadith of Muslim 913.2 (Islam)

God is not the author of all things, but of good only.
Plato, The Republic 2 (Hellenism)

God the Rescuer, God the Savior, Almighty, whom we joyfully adore, Powerful God, Invoked by all men, May he, the bounteous, grant us his blessings!
Rig Veda 7.100.4 (Hinduism)

The Lord and Cherisher of the Worlds— Who created me, and it is He who guides me; Who gives me food and drink, And when I am ill, it is He who cures me; Who will cause me to die, and then to live again; And who, I hope, will forgive me my faults on the Day of Judgment.
Qur’an 26.77-82

Always created beings He cherishes;
The Creator looks to the weal of all.
Lord! invaluable are Thy blessings;
Without extent is His bounty.
Adi Granth, Kirtan Sohila, M.1, p. 12 (Sikhism)


Lo! We have shown man the way, whether he be
grateful or disbelieving.
Qur’an 76.3

He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the
good, and sends rain on the just and on the
unjust.
Matthew 5.45

It is the Way of Heaven to show no favoritism.
It is forever on the side of the good man.
Tao Te Ching 79 (Taoism)

The Tao is the refuge for the myriad creatures.
It is that by which the good man protects,
And that by which the bad is protected.
Tao Te Ching 62 (Taoism)

I have no corporeal existence,
but Universal Benevolence is my divine body.
I have no physical power,
but Uprightness is my strength.
I have no religious clairvoyance beyond what is
bestowed by Wisdom,
I have no power of miracle other than the
attainment of quiet happiness,
I have no tact except the exercise of gentleness.
Oracle of the Kami of Sumiyoshi (Shinto)

For I Am God, and There Is No Other

Watch or listen to the Richard Urban Show from April 30, 2020: What Has Happenned to Our God-given Freedoms? https://www.visionroot.org/2020/05/01/nsa-surveils-all-americans-and-lies-about-it/

1 Samuel 14

27 Jonathan did not know about Saul’s warning to the soldiers. So he dipped the end of his walking stick in the honey and ate some with his fingers. He felt stronger and more alert. 28 Then a soldier told him, “Your father swore that anyone who ate food today would be put under a curse, and we agreed not to eat. That’s why we’re so weak.”

29 Jonathan said, “My father has caused you a lot of trouble. Look at me! I had only a little of this honey, but already I feel strong and alert. 30 I wish you had eaten some of the food the Philistines left behind. We would have been able to kill a lot more of them.”

Proverbs 5

The Lord sees everything,
    and he watches us closely.
22 Sinners are trapped and caught
    by their own evil deeds.
23 They get lost and die
because of their foolishness
    and lack of self-control.

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Part 1
God and Creation

Chapter 1
God
The Original Cause

2. The Cause behind History

For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, “My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,” calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it. Isaiah 46.9-11

On the day when We shall roll up heaven as a scroll is rolled for the writings; as We originated the first creation, so We shall bring it back again—a promise binding on Us; so We shall do. For We have written in the Psalms, after the Remembrance, “The earth shall be the inheritance of My righteous servants.” Qur’an 21.104

I testify that Thou art the Lord of all creation, and the Educator of all beings, visible and invisible. I bear witness that Thy power hath encompassed the entire universe, and that the hosts of the earth can never dismay Thee, nor can the dominion of all peoples and nations deter Thee from executing Thy purpose. I confess that Thou hast no desire except the regeneration of the whole world, and the establishment of the unity of its peoples, and the salvation of all they that dwell therein. Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh 115 (Baha’i Faith)

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

God is the First Cause and Creator of the universe—this is the starting-point of religion. Moreover, God is good, and He is eternal and unchanging, unique and absolute. As such a God created this world, He must have first formed a purpose for the creation. This purpose of creation would also have to be eternal, unchanging, unique, and absolute. (100:241, October 19, 1978)

A human being manifests the result. No one insists that human beings are the First Cause. Even if we do not know our cause, we know that we are the result of some existence, because we were born. In order to know what a human being is, we should know the Being who made human beings as resultant beings. Therefore, we should have a clear answer to the question of God, the First Cause. Only by knowing God, the Causal Being, is it possible to set our direction in life. Only with God can we find the teaching for how we should live, how our family should live, how society, the nation and the world should function. It concerns not only my individual direction, but also the way the world is going in these Last Days. (100:234, February 26, 1986)

Of everything that happens in the flow of history, nothing occurs without a relationship to Thy providence. (140:62, February 1, 1986)

Although the direction of history appears to be heading toward evil, that is not true. History progresses as human beings, through the operation of the mind, restrain their bodies and determine with resolve the direction they will go. Thus does God work in the background to govern and direct history’s development over certain times and periods. (4:191, April 20, 1958)

In the past, the present and the future, the eternal God directs His providence. Therefore, the sagas recorded in God’s heart pattern the history of every age, and the sagas that shaped those ages foreshadow the future. (16:253, June 19, 1966)

God Is the Causal Being Who Gives Direction and Purpose

Watch or listen to the Richard Urban Show from April 30, 2020: What Has Happenned to Our God-given Freedoms? https://www.visionroot.org/2020/05/01/nsa-surveils-all-americans-and-lies-about-it/

Cheon Seong Gyeong 289

As we learn in the Principle, during
the Old Testament Age material things
were sacrificed to pave the way for the
sons and daughters to come and in the
New Testament Age sons and daughters
were offered as sacrifices to pave the way
for the coming of the parent, the return-
ing Lord. Why did the Parents suffer in
the Completed Testament Age? They
walked the suffering path in order to
bring God down to this earth. My life-
long dream is to bring God down to this
earth.
I was not able to attend God in my
hometown. So I must go back to my
hometown holding high the flag of
global victory. There is an evil lord of
the second coming in North Korea; an
evil parent. Thus Kim Il-sung is called
the “beloved parent.” What does the
word parent mean? Because Satan knew
that True Parents would appear in South
Korea, and that True Parents’ home-
towns are in North Korea, he wanted to
attack and kill the True Parents through
North Korea. This is why Gorbachev and
Kim Il-sung conspired together to assas-
sinate me. In February of 1987, they dis-
patched twenty-five Red Army soldiers
to America, and the spirit world caught
them carrying my home address. The
CIA caught them, and while they were
being investigated I entered Moscow.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1807

What is the Fall? God desired through
the ideal of creation to bequeath His
direct lineage, starting from a family
to form a tribe, people and a nation, to
create a world of peace, namely God’s
Kingdom on earth and in heaven. What
is God’s Kingdom on earth and in heav-
en? There must be a house of love where
God can dwell: within my body, in the
family, nation, world, and in the infinite
spirit world where nothing is impos-
sible. The individual is a house which
God can enter and inhabit, centered on
true love. The family is formed by a cou-
ple in which man and woman are differ-
ent and opposite poles. In the Garden of
Eden, the family united by love was the
place for God to come to dwell in. The
mother and father were prepared to bear
fruit – God’s grandchildren – as the seed
connected to His lineage for all genera-
tions.

Richard: What a beautiful ideal of creation! Yet this world is far from that ideal, with the proliferation of sexual deviation and sex outside of marriage. And the assault on the two-parent family.

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Part 1
God and Creation

Chapter 1
God
The Original Cause

The First Cause of all existence did not merely create the world long ago and let it run on its own steam ever since. God is sustaining and moving the world, continually causing reality from moment to moment. Furthermore, as the Cause, God determines the purpose and qualities of all beings. In this regard, Father Moon teaches that as the Cause of human beings, God is a personal God who created human beings with characteristics resembling Himself. Nothing exists apart from a pre-ordained purpose and goal, towards which it moves by God’s unseen hand. This means that God is also the cause of history. Father Moon points out that history moves in accordance with God’s purpose—a divine providence governed by definite laws and that advances towards a clear goal. When the world reaches that goal, the Cause (God) and the effect (humanity) will be one.

1. The Cause of All Existence

I am the nucleus of every creature, Arjuna; for without me nothing can exist, neither animate nor inanimate… Wherever you find strength, or beauty, or spiritual power, you may be sure that these have sprung from a spark of my essence. Bhagavad-Gita 10.39, 41 (Hinduism)

There is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist. 1 Corinthians 8.6

The loving sage beholds that Mysterious Existence wherein the universe comes to have one home; Therein unites and therefrom issues the whole: The Lord is the warp and woof in created beings. White Yajur Veda 32.8 (Hinduism)

Surely it is He who originates, and brings again, and He is the All-forgiving, the All-loving, Lord of the Throne, the All-glorious, Performer of what He desires. Qur’an 85.13-16

Eternally He doles out gifts; Those receiving them at last can receive no more. Infinitely the creation receives from Him sustenance. He is the Ordainer; By His Ordinance the universe He runs. Says Nanak, Ever is He in bliss, Ever fulfilled. Adi Granth, Japuji 3, M.1, p. 2 (Sikhism)

If God removed His hand the world would end. Proverb (African Traditional Religions)

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Before we were born, God designed our eyes, ears, mouth, etc., so that they might perceive andknow all that exists in this world. Could human beings have known beforehand everything theyneeded to live? There must be a Being, omniscient and transcendent of human beings, who kneweverything. That Being is God. (Way of God’s Will)

God is the Causal Being of the universe. He is the Causal Being of all faculties. He is the Causal Being who adds energy. He is the Causal Being who gives direction and purpose… He presents a purpose with a direction always centered on His deep motivation, and He keeps this position without wavering. That is why, if we begin from the Cause and fix on His direction, we can move to the world that fulfills His purpose. (89:75-76, July 11, 1976)

Everything about human beings—alive with consciousness, pursuing goodness and higher value, and having a sense of sorrow and sadness—began from their Origin, not from themselves. In this resultant human life, we are going through the process of connecting with the original Cause. (140:123, February 9, 1986)

For anything on this earth to exist, there must be a cause that enables it to exist. The community in which we live, our nation and the entire visible world are each different levels of effect. The complexity of connections that form each of these environments must have developed from a cause. Human beings create societies, nations and the world. Yet, the fundamental cause that formed human beings does not lie within us. Without a doubt, we are resultant beings. We were formed from some preexisting motivation and content. We came from a cause. God is the First Cause. How do you think He created human beings? God made us in His image, like Himself. That means the Father resembles us just as we resemble the Father. So when someone
asks you, “What kind of being is God?” you can answer, “He is someone like me.” This answer will hit the mark. (127:233)

Every individual has unlimited hope, unlimited ambition, and unlimited ideals. For we resultant beings to be this way, there first had to be a causal being that possesses these qualities. The causal being is a real existence. We call it God. God is a personal God; therefore, God can be the total motivation and cause for us human
beings. Because God, the Cause, possesses such a nature, human beings, who are the effect, must necessarily possess the same nature. It stands to reason that one day, God—the cause—and we human beings—the effect—will become so inseparable that nothing can tear us apart. That day of reunion must appear in the human world. God has kept this cherished desire as He sought for humanity. (28:282-83, February 11, 1970)

God is Tested Continually by the World

Romans 5

9 But there is more! Now that God has accepted us because Christ sacrificed his life’s blood, we will also be kept safe from God’s anger. 10 Even when we were God’s enemies, he made peace with us, because his Son died for us. Yet something even greater than friendship is ours. Now that we are at peace with God, we will be saved by his Son’s life. 11 And in addition to everything else, we are happy because God sent our Lord Jesus Christ to make peace with us.

Richard: But we should recognize also that Jesus came to fulfill God’s purpose of creation and create the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. As such, he did not come to die primarily; that was the result of the faithlessness of the people.: See Chapter 4 of the Divine Principle: The Messiah: His Advent and the Purpose of His Second Coming .

Matthew 28

11 While the women were on their way, some soldiers who had been guarding the tomb went into the city. They told the chief priests everything that had happened. 12 So the chief priests met with the leaders and decided to bribe the soldiers with a lot of money. 13 They said to the soldiers, “Tell everyone that Jesus’ disciples came during the night and stole his body while you were asleep. 14 If the governor[a] hears about this, we will talk to him. You won’t have anything to worry about.” 15 The soldiers took the money and did what they were told. The Jewish people still tell each other this story.

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Part 1
God and Creation

Chapter 1
God
Unchanging and Eternal

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

God is eternal. He was eternal in the past, He is eternal in the present, and He will be eternal in the future. (22:317, May 11, 1969)

Eternity cannot be captured within time, but time exists within eternity. (41:285)

God’s ideal is eternal. God is the center of absolute and eternal life. Yet the center of that ideal is true love, with “me” as its counterpart. (216:115, March 9, 1991)

To love means to take responsibility for eternity. Love is unchanging. If God changed the way people do, how could we ever trust Him? But God is unchanging and eternal. He wants to make a relationship with mankind through true love. Nevertheless, people are constantly changing, day in and day out. How can God trust us? (31:210, May 31, 1970)

Eternal life is essentially an attribute of love. Even God, when He created the universe, adhered to the standards of absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience. God lives this way, always desiring to invest more love for the world, even though everything in the world is transient. For this reason, every creature without exception attends Him as the absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal Lord. (330:262, August 18, 2000)

How old is God? For billions of years He has been growing old, waiting. If God had a beard, I am sure it would have grown all the way down to His feet, and if God grew taller every year, there’s no telling how tall He would have grown. By what power has He been able to endure and wait for so long? It is nothing else but love. (111:77, January 25, 1981)

If your day-to-day life has only a transient value, you cannot make a connection with eternity. Your life should connect with God’s eternal love. Only then will the eternal God be with you. (2:13, January 6, 1957)

When God decides something, His decision is unchanging for eternity. Can you meet God’s standard if you change your mind a dozen times a day? Truth is truth whether you live or die; it is eternal. Truth is beyond death, beyond changeability. Thus, in order for you to be a true person, you should be beyond death, and be unchangeably steadfast. This means there will be a collision at some point between your changeability and unchangeability. Unchanging elements will overcome changing elements. Changing elements will vanish. It is as if life and death collide. When you overcome death you will have life. Once you pass through this stage, then you can have a connection with God. (66:43-44, March 18, 1973)

Being absolute, God is tested continually by the world. Everyone—even Satan—tests whether God’s love is unchanging. If God were ever unable to overcome a test and stopped loving, then He would be changeable. Yet God remains calm and unperturbed by anything. When I contemplated why God permits Himself to be put through intolerable difficulties, I realized that He had to endure them in order to secure His unchangeability. Satan and God are completely opposite. God is eternal, while Satan is transient; God is unchanging, while Satan is ever changing; God is unique, while Satan is not. There is a clear contrast between the characteristics of God and Satan. Is your mind changing or unchanging? An unchanging mind is closer to God. You prefer to be unchanging, not changing, to be absolute, not relative, because you want to take after God’s character. You would resemble God because you wish to be His object partner. God is unchanging, eternal, unique and absolute, but for what end? If God possessed these attributes purely for His own sake, they would have no meaning. These attributes are for the sake of His object partners. Likewise, we seek to be unchanging and absolute for the sake of our counterpart, not for ourselves. Therefore, no matter how many people in the world oppose God, He must endure in silence. Evil people swear, accuse and lash out at God, but He just takes it all in and remains silent. All people are meant to make the journey to true love. Therefore, even evil people seek to become absolute, unique, eternal and unchanging. Were we solitary beings, what difference would it make if we were changing or unchanging? When we say we want to be unchanging, we automatically have a relationship in mind. Because of the unchanging relationship between God and human beings, love can be possible. And love—true love—is eternal. (123:330-32, January 9, 1983)

All the ideologies, doctrines and rights that people hold— all these will disappear. But Father, we yearn that Thou dost put in our minds power ever flowing and ever bursting forth, the Eye of resurrection, that our minds and bodies may rise to the place where we can live eternally. (4:65, March 9, 1958)